Spanish Prep

Irregular Verbs

The verbs ser and estar are two irregular verbs that mean the same thing: to be. To see how and when to use each of these verbs, please click here to go to the Ser y Estar page. You will see when to use each verb, and the various tenses will have a description that tells you when the tenses are used. How/when to use the various tenses applies to all verbs, regular and irregular.

Irregular verbs in Spanish need to be memorized, but there are certain patterns that will make it easier to master these verbs.

One pattern is that of verbs which end in cer or cir in the infinitive form; with these verbs, we usually replace the ending with zco in the yo form in the present tense. They are irregular in all forms in the present subjunctive and in some forms in the imperative tense (commands). Here are the most common verbs in this category:

Here we show you how to conjugate agradecer in the present subjunctive and imperative tenses, and you can use that as a guide to conjugate the rest of the verbs above.



Note: the verbs conducir (to drive), traducir (to translate), producir (to produce), are also irregular for "yo" in the present tense (yo conduzco, traduzco, produzco). But they are also irregular in the preterite tense (indicative) for all forms: yo conduje, traduje, produje; tú condujiste, tradujiste, produjiste; él/ella/usted condujo, tradujo, produjo; nosotros condujimos, tradujimos, produjimos; ellos/ellas/ustedes condujeron, tradujeron, produjeron; vosotros condujisteis, tradujisteis, produjisteis.

In addition to being irregular in the preterite tense (indicative), the verbs conducir, traducir, producir, are also irregular in the present subjunctive, imperfect subjunctive and imperative tenses. Note: their present participle is as follows: conduciendo, traduciendo, produciendo.







NOTE: Remember that the imperfect subjunctive can also be:

Verbs that end in "uir"

Verbs that end in uir add a "y" after the "u" in the present tense in all forms except for nosotros and vosotros. NOTE: this change does not occur if the verb ends in guir. And in the present subjunctive, past subjunctive and imperative, they add the "y" after the "u" for all forms.

Examples: incluir (to include), construir (to build), concluir (to conclude), distribuir (to distribute), huir (to escape, run away).







Remember that the imperfect subjunctive has two different endings, but they mean the same. Here is the imperfect subjunctive 2:







Other examples of verbs that end in uir and follow the above rules: substituir (to substitute), atribuir (to attribute), influir (to influence), disminuir (to decrease), contribuir (to contribute).

Common verbs that are irregular in the past participle

Unlike the regular verbs where we have the "ido" or "ado" endings in the past participle, irregular verbs do not have a common ending and must be memorized. These are the most common verbs with irregular past participles: escribir (to write), hacer (to do, to make), poner (to put), resolver (to solve), cubrir (to cover), abrir (to open), ver (to see), morir (to die), volver (to come back), romper (to break), decir (to say, to tell), satisfacer (to satisfy), descubrir (to discover), devolver (to give back), componer (to fix)